Author: Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University

When the BBC presenter Lauren Laverne revealed she has smouldering myeloma, the diagnosis sounded more alarming than it is. Her situation is more subtle and nuanced than the word “myeloma” suggests. Smouldering myeloma is better thought of as an early warning stage – a sign that some of the cells in her bone marrow are […]

Jemastock/Shutterstock.com Sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time is linked to a higher risk of dying from cancer, while breaking up long sitting spells with light activity appeared to lower that risk, according to new data. But media reports of the study left many questions unanswered. Here’s what you need to know. What […]

Komsan Loonprom/Shutterstock.com Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is already saving lives in the UK – and the scale of that success is striking. Among young women who received the jab as schoolgirls, there have been no recorded deaths from cervical cancer in recent years. Between 2020 and 2024, no woman in England aged 20 to 24 […]

Video_Stock _Production/Shutterstock For many men with prostate cancer, the word “radiotherapy” still conjures up weeks of daily hospital trips: 20 or more sessions, Monday to Friday, for a month or longer. A new NHS England programme aims to shrink that burden dramatically by offering eligible men a highly focused form of radiotherapy that treats the […]

Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock.com Breast cancer treatment has come a long way, but one of the hardest questions has always been: who really needs chemotherapy, and who can safely do without it? Chemotherapy saves lives, but it also comes with serious side-effects and long‑term risks. A new study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual […]

Piece of Cake/Shutterstock.com Linus Pauling was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. He won two Nobel prizes and transformed our understanding of chemical bonds and the structure of proteins. Late in his career, though, he became famous for something very different: a passionate belief that very high doses of vitamin C […]

The overall number of cancers in people aged roughly 25 to 49 has risen by around a quarter since the early 1990s. Halfpoint/ Shutterstock Rising cancer rates in younger adults are real, worrying and still partly unexplained. A new analysis adds important detail for England, suggesting that 11 cancers are becoming more common in people […]

Deadly? Not likely. New Africa/Shutterstock.com The idea that fruit and vegetables might cause cancer sounds bizarre. For decades, studies have shown that people who eat more plants tend to live longer, healthier lives, with lower rates of heart disease, stroke and several common cancers. Lung cancer is no exception: in many large studies, higher intakes […]

Funda Demirkaya/Shutterstock.com Marriage, it turns out, may come with a side‑effect no one puts in the vows: people who have been married seem less likely to develop cancer than those who have never married at all. That is the provocative finding from a large new study that has raised interesting questions about what really keeps […]

Andrey Popov/Shutterstock Women’s HRT patches can treat prostate cancer just as effectively as standard hormone injections – but with fewer of the worst side-effects – according to a large UK trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The finding could change how men with prostate cancer that has spread beyond the gland are […]